scholarly journals Improving Public Participation Processes for the Floods Directive and Flood Awareness: Evidence from Cyprus

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katerina Charalambous ◽  
Adriana Bruggeman ◽  
Elias Giannakis ◽  
Christos Zoumides

Public participation is integrated in the European Floods Directive to ensure engagement of societal actors in selecting and accepting measures. This study assesses the Directive’s public participation process and provides recommendations for its improvement by using Cyprus as a case study. Interviews with the organizers and attendees of the public consultations were carried out to evaluate the process while a citizen survey examined people’s flood awareness and opinions of three household-level flood protection measures (permeable pavements, rainwater harvesting systems, and green roofs). Public consultation organizers were generally satisfied with the process while participants suggested better structured information and a more participatory approach. The majority (77%) of the survey respondents did not know if they lived in a designated flood risk area while 93% were unaware of the public consultations carried out for the Floods Directive. Their perception about the effectiveness of the three flood protection measures was positively associated with their willingness to implement them. The results indicated the need for more participatory methods in the public participation process and better strategies to increase awareness and the engagement of people in flood management. Establishing procedures for evaluating the effectiveness of public participation could contribute to the recognition and improvement of the process.

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
László Vértesy

The legitimacy of legislation is crucial for modern democracies. This paper provides a brief but detailed description and legal, quantitative analysis of this process, drawing attention to the most significant Hungarian techniques. According to the main provisions of Act CXXXI of 2010 on public participation in the drafting of legislation, public consultations are to be carried out within the framework of general or direct consultations. The general consultation is mandatory and open for the public, all draft bills, governmental decrees and ministerial decrees drafted by ministries are to be published on the Government’s webpage. The direct consultation is based on strategic partnerships between the relevant ministries and stakeholders, outstanding organisations. In Hungary, it is the responsibility of the minister competent to draft the legislation to open and conduct public consultation and to process the received comments. These mandatory and optional processes strengthen the legitimacy and the acceptance of legislation. As a consequence of this the legal provisions meet with the social requirements, and they can be applied as a best practice for other countries.


2020 ◽  
pp. 140-150
Author(s):  
В. О. Кінзбурська

In the article the author defines the list of administrative procedures of interaction of state bodies with the public, which includes the procedures that arise in connection with: 1) public consultations (organization and conduct of public discussions of regulations); 2) the study of public opinion; 3) involvement of the public in the work of commissions established under public authorities; 4) exercising public control and supervision; 5) carrying out information activities of state bodies (publication of public information about the work of state bodies, providing answers to public requests for information); 6) activities of public councils in terms of interaction with state bodies (conducting public consultations, conducting public monitoring, holding meetings of the public council and making decisions of a recommendatory nature); 7) submission of appeals and requests for information (application of administrative procedures). The author analyzes some administrative procedures of interaction of state bodies with the public, namely: conducting public consultations and studying public opinion. The key features of the administrative procedure of public consultations are identified, which include: its dual form of implementation, as such consultations can be carried out both in person and via the Internet; availability of mandatory and optional stages; close connection with other administrative procedure related to the implementation of information activities of public authorities; obligatory documentation of the result in the form of a report, and in case of a face-to-face consultation with the public, also a protocol; the possibility of initiating this procedure by both entities government agencies and civil society institutions. It is noted that the administrative procedure for the study of public opinion is similar to the general administrative procedure for public consultation, but has its differences, in particular: it is initiated exclusively by state bodies (executive authorities); has no optional stages; provides for competitive selection among the subjects of public opinion polls, ie in fact it is a different administrative procedure for competitive selection; does not require logging, and the main document for the implementation of such a procedure is a report.


2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROB KRUEGER ◽  
SETH TULER ◽  
THOMAS WEBLER

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-80
Author(s):  
Marcin Pomaranski

The aim of this paper is a comparative analysis of legislative solutions and practical application of the public consultations in the Polish local government after 1989. The legal changes that occurred during this period have guaranteed Polish citizens the tool to direct exercising the political power. Unfortunately, the lack of legislative precision in the use of mechanisms of civic participation in Poland is characteristic of public consultation. Despite the fact that this solution has been used by public administration since the political-system transformation and the passing of the Act on Gmina Self-Government of 1990, and that in 1997 the consultations as a form of the exercise of power by the citizens were also established in the Constitution, for the first two decades there was a fairly great freedom of interpretation in holding them, which the local self-government authorities widely used. Positive changes in the practice of using the mechanisms of public consultation in Poland, including the formulation of the widely accepted set of guidelines and practical advice concerning the manner of implementing these mechanisms, began to take place only in the last four to five years. Main thesis of the paper is the opinion that public consultations in the example of the Polish self-government despite nearly three decades of legislative and political experiences are still not an effective tool of direct democracy, but only a bureaucratic facade.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. Sam ◽  
Steven J. Jackson

This study illustrates how the rules and practices of a task force inquiry shaped the formulation of its policy. Adopting an institutional approach, it analyzes New Zealand’s Ministerial Taskforce on Sport, Fitness and Leisure (2001). Specifically, this article investigates the role of institutional arrangements (including public consultation and submission procedures) in shaping, delimiting, and circumscribing that task force’s findings and recommendations. The investigation consists of a critical analysis of available texts—including recorded observations of public consultations, written submissions, committee notes—and interviews with task force members. Two features of this task force are described and analyzed: (1) its terms of reference and operative assumptions and (2) its rules and procedures that guided the public participation processes. It is shown that the institutional arrangements can channel debates and thereby recast political relations among interests.


2019 ◽  
pp. 129-140
Author(s):  
Henk Addink

Participation is the active involvement of a group of individuals in a collective process on actual or intended actions of administrative authorities. Participation can refer to taking part in preliminary arrangements, influencing decision-makers, or taking part in actual decision-making processes. But participation can also be justified from the point of view of a sensible government finding out potential flaws and realizing ownership. The term ‘public participation’ presumes that the initiative and procedures are in the hands of citizens, the participation process is generally managed by public entities. The participation principle can be also about participation as a right, and the question of what consequences are there for the direct and guiding function of the administration. Participation is important under the democratic rule of law as well. Public participation can be motivated by democratic, constitutional, corporatist, or administrative motives. While the distinction between these motives for participation is not always unequivocal, these do offer an indication of the various perspectives—and consequently motives—of the parties involved in public participation. With regards to participation, a distinction can be made between the type and the level of participation achieved, ie form and degree of participation. Forms of participation are popular initiatives, the citizen’s panel, the referendum, and the community level forms. The degree of participation is quantified by using indicators, including the number of individuals, the time invested in and the frequency of participation, the involvement of individuals, the extent of influence on the process with respect to the issues addressed by the public authority and the level of participation that citizens are entitled to. Citizens could play different roles, for example one of co-decision-making, co-producing, counselling, consultation, or of distributing information.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Ahmad Johari Awang ◽  
M. Rafee Majid ◽  
Noradila Rusli

Public participation plays a vital role for the developer and local government as this ensures the acceptance of the general public to the proposed project. However, the general public participation rate in the planning process in Malaysia is still at a low level. Hence, this study was conducted to study the use of augmented reality (AR) as a tool in promoting public participation in the planning process. In the study that was conducted, 77 respondents were selected from the general public to evaluate the effectiveness of AR. During this evaluation process, 37 of them were given AR material, and another 40 of them were given classic plan material. By using feedbacks from the public, statistical analysis was done to study the effect of AR and conventional plan material on the willingness for public participation process. The statistical test shows that the participant is more willing to participate in the public participation process when AR material is being used.Keywords: AR, Public Participation, Urban Planning


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